Eliminating the requirement to use specialized gas during summer months in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas could save consumers and businesses an estimated $44 million per season, based on 2016 gasoline prices.

During the 2016 low Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) season (June 1 to September 15), low RVP gasoline cost motorists approximately 12 cents more per gallon than conventional gasoline sold in Columbus and Cleveland, for a total additional cost of approximately $44 million. Therefore, removal of this requirement could result in significant savings in the future.

Ohio EPA received approval on April 7, 2017, from U.S. EPA to remove Ohio’s low RVP fuel requirements in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas.

Low RVP fuel became part of Ohio EPA’s air quality State Implementation Plan (SIP) a decade ago to reduce nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emissions from vehicles in an effort to meet national ambient air quality standards for ozone. Low RVP fuel requirements were in effect in Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties in the Cincinnati area, and Clark, Greene, Miami and Montgomery counties in the Dayton area.

Ohio EPA proposed to remove the low RVP fuel requirements because they are no longer the cost-effective approach for reducing ozone that they were when the program was initiated to replace the E-Check program.

The state demonstrated to U.S. EPA that reduced emissions from Miller Coors Brewing in Cincinnati and Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton (which have recently completed environmentally beneficial projects converting from coal to natural gas) will more than offset the increased emissions of removing the low RVP fuel requirement.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1972 to consolidate efforts to protect and improve air quality, water quality and waste management in Ohio. Since then, air pollutants dropped by as much as 90 percent; large rivers meeting standards improved from 21 percent to 89 percent; and hundreds of polluting, open dumps were replaced with engineered landfills and an increased emphasis on waste reduction and recycling.